Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her Prices

In Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her Prices and Other Stories. London, Ishister, 1882. Originally published in Good Words, Feb.- May 1877.

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Frau Frohmann, owner of the Peacock Inn in the Tyrolean Alps, was a very conservative woman who believed that everything should continue as it had been “in the good old days.” Although warned by her lawyer that she was losing money at the inn, she refused to raise her prices or to change in any particular the superabundant meals served to her guests. She tried to coerce the peasant women, whose entire output of vegetables and dairy products she had bought for years, to sell to her at the old prices. Her butcher refused to sell meat at the old rate, and the whole valley rose against her, sending their produce at great inconvenience to Innsbruck where prices were higher. After a season of bickering with her old friends and friction within her own household, she learned that the income and the salary of all her guests had been raised, so that they were able and willing to pay higher prices.